Hillcrest Venture Partners

Branded Online, Inc. is an e-commerce technology company based in Costa Mesa, California, focused on providing comprehensive e-commerce solutions to brands. Established in 2010, the company offers a wide range of services including technology development, fulfillment, customer and merchant services, as well as creative services such as site design, photography, and copywriting. Additionally, Branded Online specializes in digital marketing strategies, encompassing paid search, social media marketing, and customer acquisition, among others. The company is dedicated to helping brands achieve scalable growth and operational efficiencies, allowing them to compete effectively in the marketplace. Through its expertise, Branded Online has become a trusted partner for leading fashion brands, addressing the complexities of omni-channel commerce and enhancing the overall online shopping experience.

VirtuLocity Networks Inc. is a Silicon Valley startup dedicated to enhancing internet and cloud connectivity. The company has developed a cloud-based acceleration platform that improves network performance for various service providers, including Content Delivery Network operators, carrier operators, and mobile phone providers. Their technology, which includes VLN cloud and VLN software, is compatible with multiple connection types such as wired, wireless, 2G, 3G, 4G, WiFi, and microwave. By optimizing existing infrastructure, VirtuLocity enables its clients to increase internet connection throughput and deliver faster service to end customers.

MomentFeed, Inc. develops a mobile customer experience management platform tailored for multi-location brands across various sectors, including automotive, banking, restaurants, retail, telecommunications, and travel. Founded in 2010 and based in Santa Monica, California, the company offers a suite of tools designed to enhance local engagement and visibility. Its platform includes features such as a mobile storefront creator, social media management for neighborhood engagement, and reputation management to safeguard digital presence. MomentFeed's services also encompass proximity search optimization, which helps brands increase visibility in local discovery channels, driving customer traffic and revenue. Additionally, the company provides location data publishing, information solutions for brand websites, and services for aligning and cleaning up location data.

NS8 Inc. is a provider of a fraud prevention and user experience protection platform, specializing in helping online businesses minimize risk through its comprehensive services. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, with additional offices in Miami Beach and Amsterdam, the company offers NS8 Antifraud, which utilizes machine learning, behavioral analytics, real-time scoring, and global monitoring to identify and mitigate fraudulent activities. The platform provides actionable insights into transaction quality and trustworthiness, enabling businesses to automate their fraud management workflows. It also monitors bot activity and hidden sessions, allowing users to analyze effective traffic sources and tailor content and offers accordingly. NS8 serves various industries, including e-commerce, payment gateways, online merchants, and event ticketing. In October 2020, NS8 Inc. filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Phizzle, Inc. is an engagement automation software company that specializes in data aggregation and visualization tools to enhance fan engagement. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company offers its phz.io platform, which allows users to create customized engagement applications leveraging an enterprise-level data warehouse. This platform serves various sectors, including manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and media, by enabling effective consumer management, gamification, and omni-channel communication. In addition to its fan engagement services, Phizzle also provides IoT solutions for automating multi-vendor systems in regulated manufacturing environments, helping to streamline compliance processes and reduce errors. The company has additional offices in New York and Broomfield, Colorado.

Notion is a company that specializes in home monitoring systems, providing property owners with tools to safeguard their spaces and belongings. Founded in 2013 by Brett Jurgens and Ryan Margoles and based in Denver, Colorado, Notion offers a multi-function, compact sensor that delivers real-time alerts for various issues, including motion detection, temperature changes, water leaks, and alarms. The system is designed to enhance home awareness through an intuitive user experience and comprehensive data analytics, allowing customers to proactively address potential problems in their homes.

Phoenix Energy Technologies, Inc. specializes in developing software that focuses on enterprise energy management for smart buildings and connected machines. The company provides solutions that monitor, control, and manage assets such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, refrigeration, and other industrial and consumer-facing equipment. Its software offers features that alert users, measure performance, and automatically correct or predict maintenance needs, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and reducing energy costs. Serving a diverse range of clients including retailers, universities, grocery stores, and theaters, Phoenix Energy Technologies aims to help organizations achieve their energy savings goals with minimal additional hardware. Founded in 2004 and based in Aliso Viejo, California, the company was previously known as Phoenix ESG, LLC and became a subsidiary of Duke Energy Corporation in 2015.

QuickFire Networks specializes in providing a traffic processing platform designed to meet the increasing demands for compute-intensive services in the Cloud. As traditional data center solutions struggle to keep up with the significant growth in consumer demand, QuickFire Networks offers a range of applications that include video processing, packet capture and distribution, analytic processing, and packet storage. By addressing the limitations of conventional data center appliances, the company aims to enhance network performance and efficiency, ensuring that users can effectively manage and analyze network traffic in an era of rapid technological advancement.

Departing is a provider in the death care industry, focusing on modernizing the way consumers plan and pay for funeral services. The company operates through both physical locations and an online platform, offering resources to assist individuals in organizing their own death care or that of their loved ones. Departing provides detailed information about funeral homes and associated costs, aiming to simplify the often complex and traditional processes within the industry. By leveraging technology, Departing seeks to disrupt conventional practices and enhance the consumer experience in funeral planning.

Titan Photonics, Inc. is focused on the research and development of optical systems and technologies, specializing in optical transport components and network subsystems. The company provides a range of products, including optical transport equipment that supports hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC), fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), and radio frequency over glass (RFoG) network requirements. Its offerings include intelligent optical transceivers, software-defined optics, and various optical assemblies such as wavelength-division multiplexers and splitters. Titan Photonics also delivers engineering and manufacturing services to communications service providers, networking companies, field installers, and government agencies. Established in 2001 and based in Fremont, California, the company was previously known as Optical Scale Integration before rebranding in 2005.

GenieDB, Inc. specializes in cloud computing solutions, particularly focusing on delivering a MySQL Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS). Founded in 2008 and based in San Juan Capistrano, California, the company offers a database engine that emphasizes data replication, consistency, and management. GenieDB's services enable businesses to deploy MySQL databases quickly and securely across multiple cloud infrastructures, including Amazon AWS and Google Cloud. Its multi-master replication and multi-regional distribution capabilities cater to the growing demand for low latency and continuous availability, essential for applications with a global user base. By simplifying the migration process for small and medium-sized businesses into geographically distributed cloud environments, GenieDB provides an accessible solution for achieving global scalability. The company's innovative approach enhances data synchronization and consistency across networks, ensuring optimal performance on a worldwide scale.

Codexa specializes in providing personalized solutions that streamline the transcription of meetings, enabling users to efficiently distribute high-quality meeting minutes. In addition, Codexa is developing a suite of decision-support tools aimed at assisting professional investors in navigating the overwhelming amount of financial information available online. This dual focus on enhancing meeting efficiency and supporting investment decision-making positions Codexa as a valuable resource for both corporate and financial professionals.